2 Guns
This is the story of two undercover agents from different organizations who try to do the right thing while the bad guys keep popping up all over the place. The scene with the chickens is gross, totally unexpected at least from my limited experience, and I can't forget it.
Score: 10/10
I watched Liberal Arts last night and enjoyed it a lot. Josh Radnor was really funny throughout and I think he was superb as an actor, director, and writer. This movie took me back to my years in college. 7/10
I went to see Inside Llewyn Davis last night. Astonishingly good film, and one of the Coen brothers' finest outings - very much in the vein of their earlier A Serious Man, which is quite possibly my favourite film.
"I should only believe in a God that would know how to dance. And when I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: he was the spirit of gravity- through him all things fall. Not by wrath, but by laughter, do we slay. Come, let us slay the spirit of gravity!" - Nietzsche
The Lego movie with my son. I do understand why it's so popular, it is probably the best 'kids' movie I have seen. I put kids in brackets cause I think I had more fun than my son. This is the best version of Batman I have seen, and I have seen most if not all of them. His song about depression and being an orphan was very funny.
Another part of the movie was how great it's beginning was showing cameras all over and directions about how to live your life, a small 1984 vibe.
I hope death is joyful, and I hope I'll never return -Frida Khalo
If I seem insensitive to what you are going through, understand it's the way I am- Mr. Spock
Personally, I think that the unique and supreme delight lies in the certainty of doing 'evil'–and men and women know from birth that all pleasure lies in evil. - Baudelaire
Hi there Lokasenna, I'm looking forward to watching Inside Liewyn Davies myself so I'm pleased to read your recommendation.Originally Posted by Lokasenna
The last film I watched was The Wolf of Wall Street. One of the most morally bankrupt and misogynistic films I can remember watching. Cracking fun though, and a cool 9/10 rating from me. Leonardo DiCaprio is surely the new king of Hollywood.
I enjoyed The Wolf of Wall Street as well.
Last night I saw Last Vegas. Four friends go to Las Vegas for a wedding and bachelor party and have some adventures and get to know each other better even thought they have known each other for the past 60 years.
Score: 7/10
About Time
This was an "extraordinary ordinary" movie and the best one I've seen about time travel.
Here is the theme song written by Mike Scott: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSgU0gNL2Ac
Score: 10/10
Last edited by YesNo; 02-28-2014 at 01:20 AM.
Love Actually
After watching "About Time", I looked through the library for other work by Richard Curtis and found "Love Actually". What I liked about this movie and the other one was the way ordinary events and people presented initially in a humorous way get resolved as the movie progresses. One stops laughing at the characters and starts empathizing with them.
Score 10/10
Directed by Daniel Mann from the William Inge stage success, this won an academy award as best actress for Shirley Booth who had starred in the original play.
It’s the story of a frowzy middle-aged housewife whose husband failed in his ambition to become a doctor when very young due to his girl friend becoming pregnant. The baby didn’t survive and this put a strain on their marriage that drove the husband to alcoholism that he eventually overcame through Alcoholics Anonymous.
When they decide to let a room in their house to a girl college student, the sexual liaison she has with a young man brings back memories of the older couple’s loss and the husband is hospitalised after turning to drink and attacking his wife.
As a study in psychological repression it could hardly be bettered and Shirley Booth gives an outstanding performance as the doting wife desperately trying to hang on to the memories that her husband is trying to forget.
Burt Lancaster is also superb as the husband and gives of his best in a career that contained many outstanding performances.
10/10
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
To say that Stanley Kowalski is uncouth would be a euphemism but he is content living
a low-life existence with his wife Stella in a sleazy area of New Orleans.
Into this situation comes Stella's sister Blanche, a faded southern belle dispossessed of
the family home and with nowhere else to go, whose exaggerated gentility proves a volatile
counterpart to Stanley's brutal directness; but although disgusted by Stanley, she is nevertheless
physically attracted to him. Her genteel manner, however, conceals a cupboardful of skeletons that include suicide and nymphomania.
After a series of explosive altercations, Stanley rapes Blanche while Stella is in hospital having a baby.
Stanley's best friend Mitch is more of a gentleman and has become Blanche's suitor but Stanley has discovered
the unsavoury nature of Blanche's past and reveals it to Mitch who then rejects her.
Already bordering on insanity, this tips Blanche over the edge and she is confined to a mental institution.
This is familiar Tennessee Williams territory and the cast occupy it with bravura performances; especially Marlon
Brando who gives an outstanding display of acting that transforms him visibly into the character of Stanley.
http://youtu.be/YBJ_u2ExjmY
Last edited by Emil Miller; 03-06-2014 at 06:29 PM.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I watched We're the Millers with my cousins last week and enjoyed every minute of it. Jason Studeikis was hilarious and so was Jennifer Aniston. 7/10
Also saw a couple of Oscar nominated films this year, but I was really disappointed because they were both equally bad.
I enjoyed The Millers as well. It's at the 7/10 level.
Earlier this week I rented Machete Kills and Austenland. It was 2 for $1 rental at the library.
I wasn't expecting much from either one, but my first dilemma was which to watch first? I picked Machete Kills and with all the over-the-top violence after the first 10 minutes, I wondered if it should not have been Austenland. But the violence was so outrageous it was comical although still pretty gross. And it did have Lady Gaga in it.
The next night I saw Austenland. It was very romantic. The girl was chased to the airport not by one misunderstood lover but by two. One of them even chased her back to the US. I wished I hadn't returned Machete Kills to the library since I needed something to cut through the sentimentality, but then I sat back and thought. Both of these movies were light entertainment for people like me who have nothing better to do and I asked myself: did they deliver? Yes, they did. They were entertaining. I'm glad someone bothered to make them. What's more, I got my 50 cents worth for each of them.
So, keeping that in mind, the score for both: 7/10
I saw Hayao Miyasaki's "The Wind Rises" the other day. It's an animated film about an aeronautical engineer. Miyasaki has had a continuing fascination with aviation, and "The Wind Rises" represents his swan song (unless he comes out of retirement). It's beautiful, set in the pre WW2 Japan, and filled with soft, elegant colors. If it's still in a theater near you, go and see it. You won't be disappointed.
As with many animated films (and some live action films), it won't translate well to TV. It's probably not even worth renting or taking out of the library. Seeing it on TV would be comparable to taking "Art Treasures of the Prado" out of the library, instead of seeing the originals in Madrid.
The film details the life of Jiro, an aeronautical engineer who designed the Zero. It focuses on his obsession with flying -- an obsession that mirrors that of the director. Nonetheless, the flying scenes aren't as moving as the scenes of the Japaneses countryside, or the love story between our engineer and a dying girl.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you
But when the leaves are trembling
The wind is passing through. (The Rosetti poem is quoted in the film, and, I hope correctly, here).
I don't normally comment on LitNet film reviews, but sometimes one feels impelled to draw attention to the salient features of an unusual post.
In this case, I have boldened those that struck me as being the most significant.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I saw The Wind Rises last week, Ecurb. I enjoyed it. I really liked the scenes with the young lady he fell in love with and the animated look at pre-war Japan.
I also watched Austenland a few weeks ago, YesNo. I liked it. A pretty average script. Yet another woman deluded by the idea of romantic love. Are there really so many of those around?
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its' own reason for existing." ~ Albert Einstein
"Remember, no matter where you go, there you are." Buckaroo Bonzai "Some people say I done alright for a girl." Melanie Safka
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